Not with a Bang Start and Ongoing

[voidtreckermods]

"Good Morning passengers. Today is day seven of the month of Imagination." The voice echoes through the train as passengers wake up in their beds. Not long afterwards their SCA’s glow with the colour of the void and a holographic image will appear.

Preperation

They have about an hour to prepare, a little less than usual but perhaps expected, given the urgency of the task.

The cupboards in the dressing room are open to reveal rows of tents, in all four team colours as well as some basic camp cooking equipment. They are in bags that should be easy enough to carry.

"Shortly arriving on System #6416. All passengers get ready to disembark. Next stop world 6416. Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." The train rocks and lurches, bright colours of the void filling the space and then fading as they fly downwards towards a very green landscape.

Arrival and Initial Task

The train lands in a clearing, curving round in an attempt to fit. Once everyone who wishes to disembark has done it flies back into the air, vanishing from sight.

The air is heavy and humid, though it is not currently raining. The clearing is open to the sky and looking up will reveal a worrying sight. The sky is an angry red colour, colours shifting as if the clouds themselves were on fire. It's an unnerving sight.

Their SCA's show three points, one Orange, One purple and one that is half blue and half red. The three control centres. Each are a few hours treck through the jungle and it certainly feels like there is no time to waste.

Those that don't want to treck through the forest can start setting up camp, though the darkening sky might be a little distracting. As time goes on flecks of fire drift down, though they extinguish before hitting the forest floor.

Orange are to travel to the north, Purple to the south and Blue and Red must travel together to the west. Each route takes them through thick and unrelenting jungle. Flying is difficult here unless you can get up past the canopy layer, which means vision of the ground is severely hampered.

The control stations themselves are half buried in vines and require cutting into. If voidtreckers are unlucky they will meet their first security robots here, firing on the intruders. They might even meet their first giant Armadillos, the creatures are curious and may wish to investigate. They are not helpful or constructive to trying to power up the stations and prevent the destruction of the planet.

The control stations are simple enough to operate, but there's quite a lot that needs to be done in way of repairs and clearing. It will take a team effort to get it in working enough order to activate the shield.

The shield itself, when it is activated, is mostly invisible but there is a loud humming sound. The meteor, which has gotten more visible throughout the five hours, hits the shield and splinters, fire enveloping the whole sky. It is visibly terrifying, but no fire falls to earth, no rocks get through, the planet is safe.

Ongoing

Once the planet is safe the voidtreckers deserve a rest. But once the next morning dawns it is time to start with their next tasks, to make sure that this planet stays safe from future threats.

Red

The robots at the control stations are not the only malfunctioning security robots around. They roam the jungle, or are more often stranded in the jungle, powering up only when faced with a new threat.

Some are benign, terraforming machines whose only crime is using up precious power. These need to be dismantled so that power can be saved for the shield system. Others are security robots that will attack the intruders to the planet.

Though the machines are scattered they are often obvious, emitting warning alarms or flashing lights. Their SCA's will show some areas where there are larger clusters but machines can be found anywhere.

Purple

Their SCA's are filled with hundreds of purple dots, each a solar stations that needs cleared and brought back online. It's not the most glamourous job, the stations are deep in the jungle, the treck is difficult and most of the work needed is weed clearing.

But once the weeds have been cut away they will need to patch up the station, doing basic maintenance to get it back online. In some cases wires need to be patched back together but it shouldn't take any great feats of engineering to get the stations up and running.

They may run into some of the security automatons, needing to fight their way into the stations before they can begin the clean up operations.

Orange

Like the red team their SCA will show areas where there are clusters of the small insectoid automatons that need to be rescued and restored. However they can be found anywhere throughout the jungle, they are not too suited for the terrain outside of the stations and so they have gotten tangled in vines. They can be found powered down, stranded and in dire need of maintenance.

Tools and spare parts can be found in many of the solar stations that purple team have been locating. Actually repairing the robots takes some engineering knowledge but once they are restored they will go about their tasks in the stations. They will need help getting to the further flung stations as well as the main control centres.

They are very basic in design and follow pre programmed instructions rather than being able to hear and listen to orders. But once in the correct place they are very effective at their job.

Blue

Once the shield is up there is a faint humming that can be heard throughout the jungle if they listen closely and find it among the sound of rain and insects. But once they hear it, it is obvious where it is louder and more prominent.

Their SCA will pin point some of the larger control boxes but there are truthfully too many to show on a map. Not all of them have attracted Violet Pandas, but many of them have.

They are curious creatures, both of the power boxes and the voidtreckers. They are protective of each other but not so much of territory and therefore it is not difficult to move them on. Keeping them away is another matter, the power humming is interesting and they will unearth wires and chew through them. It doesn't seem to do them much harm, there is clearly safety stops in the system for such eventualities. It does however cut power off to entire solar stations and require a lot of patch work.

Good luck voidtreckers!

Comments

[irrationally]

I have.

[ Ugh. Well, at least they're not talking about the singing, so maybe she can just shove that little tidbit under the carpet for the rest of forever. The girl doesn't seem like the type to go blab to everyone about it, anyway.. Hopefully.

Alice slowly does pull her knife out of the robot now though, but doesn't move. Instead she casts a glance over at the metal heap before looking back at the other girl. ]

I don't think you can really say "killed" though. There doesn't seem to be anything alive inside of them. [ That's what she was checking with her stabbing! ]

[knifewithnoname]

Smashing it then, so it do no be working any more. Do metal people no be being alive then?

[It's an interesting question. If someone was just made of wires and metal could they be alive and so did it count as killing if you smashed them?

There were metal people on the train, and she should probably ask them, but Alice is smart and doesn't get mad when she asks such things.

And it's a distraction, so Alice forgets to be mad at her for hearing her sing.]

[irrationally]

[ It's a pretty good question. And a deep one, depending on how you think about it. Alice isn't sure what to say about that in general, but..

In this case it's pretty obvious. She gestures at the fallen robot. ]

These sure aren't. They don't even seem to be intelligent. All they do is move to attack people the moment they spot movement. [ Judging from its behaviour in the fight with her just now. ] These were just made by people, though said people don't seem to be on this planet any longer.

[knifewithnoname]

"But some other ones do be being? If they do be being intelligent?"

Because if intelligence is the definition of life well... She knows plenty of stupid people.

Maybe not as stupid as these robots that don't even think at all.

[irrationally]

"Well, back in Wonderland these usually had beings in them."

She knocks with the knuckles of one hand onto the metal exterior of the robot. It sure sounds hollow alright, especially with Alice already having messed up its insides enough..

"So it was a lot easier to tell that those were alive. Honestly, I'm not even sure how these here move without anything sitting inside them to control them, but they seem little more than machines this way."

[knifewithnoname]

"People did be living inside metal people?"

Alice's world was weird indeed. "That do be sounding strange, but metal people with no real people inside also does be sounding weird."

It's just confusing honestly.

[irrationally]

The situation was a little bit more complicated than that, but.. honestly, maybe it's better if she leaves it at this. It's not exactly the best thing to tell a young child that they brainwashed young children into controlling those robots..

Instead she just nods at the last thing the girl says.

"It is very odd. I have no idea what makes these things move." The concept of electricity is weird and difficult, alright. "But.. more importantly, should we see if we can find another one of these?"

Because Alice really feels like hitting something after the embarrassment of being found in the middle of singing.

[knifewithnoname]

"I do no be knowing either." Magic, science or magic science. Most things boiled down to one of those three.

But finding another robot to bash? She understood that much more so and she nodded enthusiastically. "Let's be going and finding one." She tapped her SCA to look at the dots, since she knew Alice's wouldn't show them.

"There do be being some, no to far away." She held her wrist out so Alice could see.

[irrationally]

Well. Even though she hates people being drawn to her singing, apparently it was at least like a siren's call to red team members.. So she will at least take this small benefit of being able to actually tell where these things are rather than having to make her way through plants for good chunks of time.

"Seems good."

She nods as she takes a look at the display.

"Let's start heading out that way before anyone else gets to them first. I do hate it when people try to ruin my fun."

[knifewithnoname]

"That do be being stupid." She agreed, if they were going to trudge through this jungle then there better be robots to smash at the end of their walk.

"Let's be going."

[irrationally]

And so off they go! Maybe with the younger girl mostly in the lead, since she knows the way towards these robots here. And it seems the dots were spot on - there are a few of them not too far away, in a slight clearing between the trees. The fact they're out in the open like that makes it pretty easy to spot them, even as the two of them are still approaching from a distance - still far enough to not have triggered any of the robots' alarm systems yet.

"Well, seems like it was right. There seem to be at least three of them right over there."

[knifewithnoname]

She looked over her shoulder at her and grinned. There were indeed three, they hadn't spotted them yet, patrolling the area in the awkward way all these robots did.

"We can be taking them easy."

She doesn't doubt it at all.

[irrationally]

Alice doesn't seem too concerned about their ability to take these on either. You know, despite her partner in fighting here being a literal child. But Alice is very, very confident in her own abilities, especially since she has tested those out on robots even back home plenty of times, and the girl has proven herself to be capable of holding her own.

It should be fine.

"Then let's do just that."

In fact, she will even give them a headstart. Alice summons her teapot to her hands, and after taking a second to let the.. well, whatever it is inside boil, she pulls the handle, firing the liquid into the clearing.

The nature of the liquid may be a mystery, but apparently it's at the very least hot enough to stun all the robots, making them freeze up in place as they try to not short circuit at it.

Have at them, girl.

[knifewithnoname]

Well that was useful. Magic tea. Or robot boiling tea. Either way. Useful.

She grinned and ran in, avoiding the tea herself to jump on the nearest robot and bash it with the hilt of her dagger before flipping the blade and driving it into the joint between head and body.

[irrationally]

See, this is even a good opportunity for her to see the girl fight. Especially since Alice knows just exactly how long those robots will remain stunned this way, so it's not even like she's just putting the younger girl in danger - Alice may be slightly odd, but she'd never do that.

But it's nice to see. The way she jumps, the way she uses her dagger. It's skillful, managing to seek out the right point to attack it right away.

Alice waits just a moment to take it all in, but then she lets the teapot in her hands fade as she instead pulls out her metal hobby horse, swinging it straight against a second robot's 'head' - or what would pass for a head on a human, anyway.

It sure leaves a nice indentation in the shape of the horse's head as the robot topples over.

"That's two." Between hers and the girl's.

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes." She grinned, that hobby horse really was useful! "You do be doing good."

She was a good robot smasher. "We do be doing the last one together."

It would take no time at all. She grinned and ran towards it.

[irrationally]

Together, huh? It isn't something Alice is entirely used to, but of course she's not going to deny the girl that if it's what she wants.

"Fine. It seems these things too slow either way to do something about us before we do something about them."

She does know, however, that it means she's going to have to be a whole lot more careful here - Alice wouldn't accidentally want to smash the girl alongside the robot. It's something she's unused to, but she could probably manage if she really tried.

So she makes sure to pay close attention to where the young girl is heading, her exact trajectory. So Alice can make sure that when she swings her hobby horse a moment later, it's striking exactly a different part of the robot than the part the girl is targeting.

[knifewithnoname]

She trusts her not to hit her, trusts that she is a good enough fighter. She is small and quick and between the two of them the robot is no more.

Once it is down she looks around, no more for now, and begins prying the petal apart. "The man with a number for a name did be showing me what parts do be being useful." She explained.

[irrationally]

"A number for a name?" She asks, curiously, though not stopping the other girl whatsoever from prying open the robot. A little curiosity for kids is good! Go on, look and see what's inside of that weird robot thing.

In the meantime Alice just squats next to the girl and the remainders of the robots, seeming to think about those words for a moment. She doesn't recall hearing about anyone with numbers for a name..

"We have someone like that on the train?"

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes." She nodded, "He do be being number forty seven on the roster, right at the bottom. He do be looking like this."

She pulled her liniest line face, such a face she would never dare pull if he could see her. But as weird, dangerous and often wrong Alice was she wouldn't tell on her.

She hoped.

[irrationally]

For a moment Alice just stares.

But then - for all the ideas this girl may have about her - she does something unexpected. Not telling on the girl, no, of course not, but.. she can't contain her amusement at seeing this odd little girl of all people try to imitate someone Alice now obviously recognizes, just from that iconic face.

So she actually starts laughing. It doesn't even have a meanspirited edge to it, it's just genuine laugher ringing out. So much so that Alice's shoulders start to shake, her hand moving to cover up her mouth, like a polite habit that somehow hasn't been stomped out of her over the years.

"Oh-- Oh no, that looks exactly like him!" And it's hilarious.

[knifewithnoname]

She's never heard Alice laugh before. It surprises her but not in a bad way. It's not nasty laughter, she's not laughing at her. Or she is, but not in a cruel way.

She smiled, breaking her line facing face.

"It do be." She agreed, she knew she could do that face because Kant often had exactly the same face.

[irrationally]

Even by the time she's no longer laughing out loud, the amusement is still reflected in Alice's voice as she speaks.

"He does always look like that, doesn't he? It's quite odd! As if he may die the moment he cracks a smile." Says the girl.. who never smiles either.. But look, at least she proved she can now!

[knifewithnoname]

"He do always be looking like that, I do no even be thinking he do be knowing how to be smiling."

Even Kant smiled sometimes, not often. But she had seen it happen. Then again she had only known the man with a number for a name for a few months and she had known Kant for the whole of her life.

Alice was someone else who didn't smile a lot, but now she had proven she could.

"But I did no be knowing you could be laughing."

Laughing and singing, many things she had learned about Alice today.

[irrationally]

"Well, of course I can! Anyone can."

Though she - at least - doesn't sound like she thinks it's a totally ridiculous thing for the girl to say. Alice can kind of figure out where it's coming from. Even though she may be better at facial expressions than the guy they were discussing, it's not exactly like they often skew to the happier side of the emotional spectrum. It's more often than not fifty shades of annoyed.

"It's just that some people don't have as much to laugh about as others." Like Alice. It's been a rough, rough life. And it's been a long time since Wonderland was enough of a welcome retreat for her to be able to laugh there.